Ocado for Veggies and Vegans

By contributor Claire Zakiewicz – a healthy eating enthusiast and keen marathon runner.

Although online food shopping is not always feasible for me as I travel so much, I love the idea of it and buy most other things online such as clothes, electronics and household essentials. All this has saved me huge amounts of lovely time that I can now spend on other things – such as running and eating!

When I am in one place for more than a few days I stock my kitchen with quality, organic fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, pulses, whole-grains, spices and herbs and cook from scratch. I find the extra cost of quality organic food pays off in terms of added nutrition and makes economic sense so long as I don’t let things go off and make packed lunches when out and about. I admit that I indulge in all sorts of poisons when being social, but that’s all the more reason for being well organised at home!

Even living in central London, buying quality fresh organic food and decent vegan produce means travelling twice the distance so having an online-delivery grocery store with a wide stock of vegan products can really help those wanting to cut out meat and dairy. I was recently invited to the online shop Ocado’s vegetarian dinner event, where they were showcasing their vegetarian produce and recipes. The dinner was in the gorgeous basement area of the vegetarian restaurant, Tibits and included six dishes using tofu, bean burgers, falafel and vegan sausages.

Now, to be honest, as a fairly strict advocate of natural produce, many of these meat substitutes wouldn’t be included in my food shopping. However, I have to admit that I do enjoy the occasional fake meat dish such as roast Quorn as an alternative to turkey at Christmas, or the odd campsite veggie burger. After all, I made my decision to become vegetarian at a barbeque when I was twelve. I remember wondering why the better tasting burgers were made from vegetables and the meat ones were not only less healthy but also involved the killing of a cow. After that I had to cook for myself at home and quickly learnt how to make dishes from all kinds of vegetables.

It would, therefore, be reasonable to argue that some people who are worried about the transition towards vegetarianism could use meat substitutes as a way in. After all, I have many friends who just don’t know what to do with vegetables. I say to them, try to learn! There is no comparing a freshly cooked aubergine, pumpkin, or asparagus to processed fake meat. But anyway, I did eat every morsel served to me at Ocado’s event and it was all worth telling you about.

In terms of taste, the Vegan Beano Burgers were my favourite and I went back for more after having tried everything else. They had a rich combination of flavours and would go down well at any barbeque.

The Cauldron Falafel Sandwich was also good and felt nourishing – perhaps a little on the dry side but I would have just added some vegan mayonnaise or chutney.

Vegan Bangers in Onion Gravy

Now, as I’ve said, I don’t miss meat and wouldn’t usually want to eat a sausage of any kind – even vegetarian. Having said that I did finish off my plate of Vegan Bangers in Onion Gravy. I wouldn’t buy the sausages though – I found the taste over-strong. But I would happily follow Ocado’s recipe and add mushrooms instead of the bangers. Wine and bouillon are often my secret ingredients in much of my cooking and are good tips for new vegetarians.

Tofu Kedgeree

The Tofu Kedgeree was hearty and healthy with turmeric. It was also possible to make vegan by taking out the eggs. They used Taifan Organic Smoked Tofu for this dish, which is slightly more rubbery but more flavourful than other varieties of tofu.

Cauldron Tofu with Cherry Tomato Salad

The Cauldron Tofu with Cherry Tomato Salad had a lovely combination of textures, colours and flavours. For this they used a Cauldron original tofu block, which is a creamy tofu with a more fragile texture combined with sweet cherry tomatoes and basil.

Vegan Cauldron Organic Marinated Tofu

Their third tofu dish was the Vegan Cauldron Organic Marinated Tofu tossed in Udon Noodles with Teriyaki Sauce. This time the tofu had a firm skin but was soft on the inside – perfect for a stir-fry. They used a homemade teriyaki sauce using their tasty vegan ketchup and a generous and colourful selection of vegetables.

Booja-Booja Chocolate Truffles

To finish the meal we had divine organic and dairy free Booja-Booja Chocolate Truffles. Although pricy at £6.99 for 104g they are proof that dairy is not needed to make great chocolate and the English are finally doing it to world-class standards. I challenge anybody to taste these and disagree! I also give a well-deserved shout out for the great wine I was drinking all night – Tierra Sauvignon Blanc.

Tierra Sauvignon Blanc

It’s great that Ocado are promoting their vegetarian and vegan goods accompanied by a range of recipes. I’m sure that if more people knew how to cook and buy vegan produce there would be far, far more vegans and our health in general would improve massively. The next steps are having more chefs taking vegan dishes more seriously for restaurant diners and focussing on the delights of the fresh vegetable!

You can find all the recipes and many others on the Ocado website.

Many thanks to Ocado and Tibits for the invitation.